A year ago Oklahoma wore out by season’s end but make no mistake, physicality in practice is still there.
There is a bit more pressure for [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] heading into Year 2. Partly because they went 6-7 in his debut season, but mainly because he went 6-7 and coaches at the [autotag]University of Oklahoma[/autotag].
There are some who have Venables on the hot seat after the Sooners’ performance in 2022.
Which is kinda ridiculous. You can’t make a definitive evaluation of a coach after one year. It doesn’t matter if they go 15-0 and win the national title or go 0-12. No coach will have his program the way he wants it after one year, especially in the transfer portal era.
We know why Venables was brought to Norman. He was brought here to improve the defense and get the team “SEC ready.”
Venables told reporters, he’s seeing improvement on the defensive side of the ball in fall camp.
“Confidence, aggressiveness, physicality, consistency in that two-deep. And it’s never where you want it to be, but it’s improved from where we were,” Venables said. “That’s the biggest thing. I like watching guys who have really invested, that have been here for whatever amount of time. I like to watch them being invested in chasing excellence.”
Venables knows a thing or two about excellence. His defenses have been among the best in the nation for much of the last two decades spanning his time at Oklahoma and Clemson. Contrary to last year’s results, he didn’t forget how to coach defense when he hopped on a plane and headed to Norman.
However, he’s still learning. Venables is new to being a head coach.
One thing he even admitted a year ago was he might have practiced the team too hard. That allowed them to peak early in the year but wear out by season’s end. Venables said he has found ways to navigate that like making periods a little tighter and more efficient with how they practice.
That has some thinking practices have become less physical. Venables said, make no mistake, the physicality in practice hasn’t gone away, they are just better at it than a year ago.
“I don’t necessarily see that,” Venables said. “We might have less time on the field, but we have the same amount of live plays. Just being more efficient. We’re getting to periods quicker, a little bit more of that. Just the physicality has been good.”
That’s the thing about being a head coach, finding that balance. If people remember, [autotag]Lincoln Riley[/autotag]’s practices were thought to be not physical, which showed up on game days.
You hear former Alabama Crimson Tide players talk, and Nick Saban’s practices are more difficult than a lot of NFL practices. That has seemed to do OK for him.
When you are heading into the most physical conference, you better practice like you wanna play. As they’ve improved the depth on the roster, it gives the coaching staff even more liberty to ratchet up the physicality.
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